Southern Lehigh sweeps 2A championships

Northwestern's Burns, Solehi's Moyer win top individual honors.

Parkland High School girls along with their coaches jump in the pool after… (KEVIN MINGORA, THE MORNING…)

March 05, 2011|By John Heilig, SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL

In a day where three new meet records were set, Southern Lehigh dominated the Class 2A boys and girls District 11 swimming championships on Saturday at Parkland High School.

Salisbury finished second and Central Catholic third in both boys and girls, and there multiple boys and girls winners.

But it was a girl from a school with no team or pool in which to practice who took home one of the biggest awards of the two-day meet.

Northwestern's Madison Burns won both races in which she was entered and took home the Dennis A. McGinley Award for outstanding girls swimmer of the meet.

"I never really thought I would do school swimming," said Burns, who swims at the club level with the Parkland Aquatic Club. "But I really like it. It is exciting [to win the medals]. It's really fun. "

Burns won the 100 breaststroke Saturday to match her win Friday in the 200 individual medley. She edged Katie Cialkowski of Salisbury, who won four gold medals (two individuals and two relays), for the award — but relays don't count in McGinley Award voting. Cialkowski added wins in the 100 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay Saturday to Friday's haul.

It was Cialkowski's third leg in the 400 free relay that changed a slim lead to a 4.5-second win for the Falcons in meet record time of 3:35.44.

"She [the Southern Lehigh swimmer in the adjacent lane] was keeping really close to me and I said 'We're not going to lose this relay. We've won it the last two years,'" Cialkowski said. "So I just stepped it up and gave it everything I had."

Jason Moyer of Southern Lehigh also won four gold medals and the McGinley award as outstanding boy swimmer. Moyer won the 100 backstroke and 400 freestyle relay to go with his 50 free and 200 freestyle relay triumphs.

"It all depends on who the other team swims," Moyer said of his win in the final race of the meet, the 400 relay. "I knew the other teams would be good competitors, so I wanted to start the race off the way we wanted to."

Other multiple winners included Riley Geis of Southern Lehigh, who again edged Salisbury's Eric Tatum, this time in the 100 freestyle.

"I credit my wins to my coaches and a good razor and shaving cream," Geis joked. "I'll probably need more cream for states."

Abigail Thompson won the first gold medal ever for Moravian Academy in the 500 freestyle.

"Swimming is my favorite sport and I really wanted to win here today," she said. "I've been training very hard the past few weeks and I really wanted it."

Zach Oatis of Saucon Valley added a gold with his win in the 500 freestyle to his 200 freestyle win from Friday. Mike Ambrose led a 1-2-3 Southern Lehigh sweep in the 100 breaststroke.

"Like everything else, it takes a lot of dedication," Solehi coach John Neumann said of his boys' sixth championship and his girls' second. "The kids have really stepped up in their training and they're an incredibly close group.

"For six months out of the year, they do everything together. I think that gives us an edge over a lot of other teams. There are no rivalries and they truly love each other."